Conflicting Memories: Ukraine – 26 February 2015

PRESS RELEASE

Conflicting Memories: Ukraine

– a political crisis from a cultural perspective

Amsterdam, 17th February 2015

“The EU and Russia are really living in different worlds and the competition is to demonstrate which of this worlds is the real one,” – says Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies, Sofia. Being the expert in politics of Eastern Europe, Krastev will lead the discussion ‘Conflicting Memories’ with Ukrainian activists and cultural thinkers on 26th of February:

– Vasyl Cherepanyn, Visual Culture Research Centre, Kyiv,

– Yevhen Hlibovitsky, Pro Mova, Lviv

– Mykhailo Glybokyi, Izolyatsia, Platform for Cultural Initiatives

The event will take place at:

Castrum Peregrini, Herengracht 401, entrance Beulingstraat on

Thursday, 26th of February at 19:30 hrs.

In old Slavic language ‘Ukraine’ literally means ‘borderlands’, ‘by the border’, symbolic for the country bordering Russia and the EU. But is it an origin for the separatist actions and recent armed conflict? A blurring border on the East of Ukraine is a warning signal for the whole geo-political climate on the post-soviet territory. Looking from the cultural perspective, panelists will debate upon clashing cultural references of the Ukrainian identity, which created the ground for the on-going conflict.

No matter what Kremlin’s agenda is, Ukraine is the most logical spot for the first manoeuvre. This discussion is a great chance to hear a life debate on insider beliefs of Ukraine from both East- and West-Ukrainian perspectives, not shadowed by the media. Cultural and political activists, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Yevhen Hlibovitsky, Mykhailo Glybokyi, are going to give an impulse presentation on their view of the current conflict. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion, opened for the audience.

Conflicting memories: Ukraine. A political crises from a cultural perspective takes place within the Memory Machine – We Are What We Remember programme of Castrum Peregrini and is established in close cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).

On March 31st, Vasyl Cherepanyn will be honoured with the ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture for the outstanding work at Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv). The ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture Award is a platform for showing those whose creative work can truly make a difference to Europe’s varied societies, underlining ECF’s belief that social and political change requires artistic and cultural engagement. The Award was launched in 2007 in honour of ECF’s former President, HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and now annually given to European artists, intellectuals and activists. The prestigious award includes prize money of 25,000 euros per laureate: http://www.culturalfoundation.eu/pma-2015

Castrum Peregrini’s programme Memory Machine – We Are What We Remember about our memory and what it says about who we are: as an individual and as a group, about how collective memory is formed, influenced and eroded. For the full programme, see: www.facebook.com/MemoryMachinebyCastrumPeregrini

Short Bio’s of the speakers:

Ivan Krastev (1965), is the Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, and permanent fellow at the IWM Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the advisory board of the ERSTE Foundation. He is also associate editor of Europe’s World and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy and journal Transit – Europäische Revue. He was ranked in the 2008 Top 100 Public Intellectuals Foreign Policy/Prospect List. Since 2004, he has been the executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans. He is a co-author with Steven Holmes of a forthcoming book on Russian politics. see also: https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/ivan-krastev

Vasyl Cherepanyn (1980), Kiev is founder and chair of the Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC)http://vcrc.org.ua/en/микола–рідний–укриття/. The VCRC is nominated for the ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture, March 31st 2015 in Bozar Brussels. more information: http://www.culturalfoundation.eu/pma-2015 Cherepanyn did a PhD in cultural studies department National University of Kyiv / Mohyle Academy.Vasyl Cherepanyn is an activist, artist and teacher at university.

Yevhen Hlibovytsky, (1976), is a founder of pro.mova, an independent think tank that conducts research on cultural values in the post-Soviet countries and inside Ukraine. His educational background is in political science, professional background (until 2005) in political journalism. This year he was involved in the establishment of the station HromadskeTV, a prototype of Public Service Broadcast in Ukraine. He is a lecturer at the UkrainianCatholicUniversity in Lviv and Kyiv-Mohyla